


Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

by yourcrookedheart



Series: New Romantics [1]
Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Haunted Houses, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-06 08:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16828564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourcrookedheart/pseuds/yourcrookedheart
Summary: Harvey has lost his brother and his girlfriend, and life doesn't seem to make much sense anymore. Then one night, an owl comes a-knocking at his window, prompting a rescue mission for Sabrina that leads Harvey to a strange house in the woods.Also, Nick is there. Because of course.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been working on this one for a while, basically since I saw the show. It seemed like a shame to waste the opportunity for more polyamory in fandom, so here I am, happy to provide. 
> 
> This particular fic is finished, but there may be a sequel to it in the future. I’ve got a few plot ideas I wasn’t able to work into this story that I still want to deal with. Let me know if you guys would be interested in that.
> 
> As always thanks to ExistentialMalaises for the beta reading. Your feedback is invaluable!

Night descended over Greendale, and in droves with skin pale and eyes pitch-black, the demons came out to play. Harvey’s eyes traced the pages of his comic, committing the harsh, recalcitrant lines to mind. He liked the crudeness of it, the unfinished sketch-like quality. Hazy nightmare visions, cross-hatched into darkness and staring at him as if they might come alive at any point. The penciled black cat even reminded him a bit of Salem, a demonic little creature with comically wide eyes that somehow managed to convey sentiments no cat should be capable of.

He’d never asked Sabrina whether Salem was a regular cat, or magic like its owner. Probably the latter. Everything about Sabrina was magic, as it turned out. Except for Harvey, and look where that had gotten him.

Outside, an owl hooted. He could hear his father puttering around downstairs, the muted sounds of some sitcom playing in the background. A cupboard slammed, followed by hoarse curses. Ever since Tommy his father had been withdrawn, more so than usual. Louder, too, as if he wanted to make up for the silence that Tommy’s absence had left. Harvey too missed the obscure rock bands his brother used to play, missed having to bang on the walls of his room begging him to turn it down. Now the room behind the headboard of his bed was silent as a grave.

Most nights but especially on bad days, when their father had come home angrily rambling about some employee, Tommy would enter his room and ask Harvey what he was reading. Harvey would explain, and Tommy would shake his head, chastising him for living in his head with the ghosts and demons from his comics. And though Tommy’s puzzlement was a fond kind, it had been so easy for him to be the son their father expected them to be. Harvey had never managed that. He was starting to think he never would.

Easier to live in the fantasy world, where the nightmares were pencil and ink and couldn’t hurt you. It was the only escape from reality Harvey could think of right now. Before the tornado, before Tommy, before that 31st of October he’d never forget—before all that—his escape had been Sabrina. Now there was just the pictures, and the etching of a cat instead of a real life copy twisting around his ankles.

He flipped the comic to a drawing of an owl. It covered the entirety of the page, its feathers black and fading into the night sky that formed the backdrop. Its eyes were a shocking violent red. Harvey blinked.

The owl blinked back.

In less than a second, Harvey was on the other side of his room, back to the wall and panting out short breaths. He felt faint. The comic lay on his bed, face down so only the cover was visible.

Had he imagined that?

The laugh track from his dad’s sitcom drifted up from downstairs. Harvey felt a chill run down his spine. Magic was real, and his comics were moving. Great. Nails digging into his palms, he took a step forward. _Man up_. An echo of his dad’s voice, urging him to stand up to one of the older boys on the lacrosse team.

Carefully and with damp palms he prodded at the comic book. It shifted a couple of inches on the bed. Nothing. No demons, no owls with shiny blinking eyes. He turned it over to look at the drawing, which was as immobile as one would expect. _Had_ he imagined all that?

His breath had just slowed down when a ticking sound started to his right, low and rhythmically at first but then gaining in volume, a quick staccato. A glance to the window revealed an owl, a real one, sitting on his ledge and battering away at the glass with its beak. Its eyes weren’t red but yellow, nearly luminescent in the dark night. It drew back momentarily, hooted, and returned to its drumming.

“What do you want?” Harvey asked, and immediately felt stupid for talking to an animal, even one behaving as strangely as this owl. But then it blinked and cocked its head, as if beckoning him closer.

It was probably nothing good. If the past few months had taught Harvey anything it was that odd happenings usually spelled disaster, and owls trying to communicate with him surely fell under that category.

He approached the window anyway.

“Hello?” he tried, prying the window open. He shivered at the chill draft making its way into his room and through the thin material of his jersey.

The owl opened its beak. “Harvey? Oh god, Harvey.”

The goose bumps that broke out over the skin of arms and legs had nothing to with the cold and everything with the human voice coming from the feathered animal.

“Sabrina?”

“Harvey,” Sabrina’s voice spoke, high and frantic. “Please, I need help.”

“Where—” He sucked in a breath. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the woods, in a house. I’m stuck here, Harvey, I don’t know what happened.” The words tripped over each other as they fell from the beak of the owl. Yet the cadence was undeniably Sabrina’s.

“How do I find you?”

Harvey thought he could detect a hint of panic in the owl’s round eyes, but it might as well have been his own alarm spilling over, altering his perception. “Follow the owl. I cast a spell that should lead it back to me. But you have to be careful, Harvey.”

He was already grabbing his sweater from off the floor, shrugging it on before pausing in the doorway of his room to listen to the sounds from downstairs. With some luck, his father would fall asleep in front the TV soon. Harvey could be back without his dad even having noticed he’d left.

Or whatever had got to Sabrina could kill him before he even got the chance to save her, a treacherous voice whispered in his head. He should find help. Head out to the Spellman home and get her aunts or cousin to come along, people who could do magic and were used to fighting evil—but that would take ages, and there was no one else he could call. Not Roz or Susie, who he felt had only really put up with him because he’d been Sabrina’s boyfriend, and though they’d remained exceedingly polite in her absence, they had never been his friends. He definitely couldn’t call his own friends. And the day of the tornado, that Nick guy had told Harvey he could call him any time if something was up, but then he’d left without leaving a phone number. As if Harvey was supposed to say his name three times in the mirror and he’d appear.

“Forget it,” he said out loud, half to himself and half to the owl, which was hopping around impatiently. “I’m coming, ‘Brina.” 

He’d never actually climbed out of his window before, mostly because he was afraid his dad would catch him before he’d even made his way down. It seemed easier in movies. Even as careful as he was, he twisted his ankle jumping from the roof and ripped his jacket on a pipe. But then he was on the ground and Sabrina’s owl swooped out in front of him, leading the way in the darkness.

He had to pay attention not to lose sight of it, especially when they abandoned the road and turned towards the woods. He’d only visited the Greendale forest during daylight. It had always felt magical, even before he’d known magic was real. Something about the way the light filtered through the thick blanket of branches and leaves, the way the colors were just a little too green, a little too bold. Harvey had grown up in Greendale, a town boy through and through, but he’d always felt like a stranger between these trees.

Yet if it felt like a magic dream during the day, it was a nightmare in the dark. Branches became arms ending in long claws, the sound of the wind a drawn-out keening. He slipped a few times on the slick leaves and moss that covered the forest ground because he was afraid of losing the owl to the shadows. He didn’t know how long he’d been walking already, and to make matters worse he had no idea how far away Sabrina was being kept. The owl had infuriatingly refused to speak since they’d left Harvey’s house.

He was close to giving up hope when the dense thicket cleared a little. The owl broke through the trees and landed on a fallen branch, and Harvey looked up to a house set in the middle of a clearing.

Sure as he was that he had not a single magic bone in his body, he thought he could still tell the house was enchanted by the feeling of wrongness that crept upon him at the sight. This house was not supposed to be here. It was not supposed to exist at all.

He looked towards the branch where the owl had landed, but it had gone.

“Sabrina? Sabrina, are you there?” His voice echoed without reply. “Sabrina!”

He would have to enter. He’d known that before he’d followed the owl here, but the knowledge still filled him with dread. Before he could give himself time to second-guess himself or chicken out, he stepped up to the door and tried the brass doorknob. The door swung open easily. He took a few strides into the darkened hallway. Too easy, almost.

The door swung shut behind him.

He whirled around, groping for the latch, but his hands only met wallpaper. Whatever door he’d entered through, it was gone.

He groaned, scanning the hallway. The faint glow of a light overhead illuminated just enough to see that there were doors on both sides, all of them closed. Wallpaper peeled from the walls, covered in a yellowing paisley design, while the walls themselves seemed to lean in towards each other, creating an oppressing atmosphere.

“Sabrina!” he called out, not really expecting an answer. “It’s me, Harvey.”

“Harvey?” Sabrina came stumbling through one of the doors on his left, platinum hair in disarray and eyes wide. “What are you doing here?” she asked. Her forest green sweater was torn and there were dark streaks across her bare arms. He took a few steps towards her.

“You called. The owl you sent, you… You called.” Her eyebrows drew together, and he knew she hadn’t.

“You need to get out of here,” she said, determination overtaking her worry.

Harvey chanced a glance over his shoulder. “I would, but the door’s gone.”

Sabrina shook her head. “You shouldn’t be here, they shouldn’t even have let you in. I don’t understand…” She trailed off, looking around her.

“What’s going on, ‘Brina?” Something was wrong. The owl that had Sabrina’s voice but hadn’t been sent by Sabrina, even though it had led Harvey straight to her. This strange, defiant house. Sabrina, disheveled, who seemed to be looking for something.

“I’ll explain later.” She whispered something under her breath, and a tiny blue sphere shot from the tips of her fingers, drifting through the wall. 

“You could explain now,” he said, feeling the long night catch up to him. His twisted ankle felt sore, clamoring for him to let it rest.

Sabrina’s answer was drowned out by a low, scraping sound. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, like someone—or something—was scratching at the walls. He grabbed Sabrina’s arm, pulling her closer.

The sound only grew louder, and then from the darkness Harvey could see a shape moving towards them. He wanted to warn Sabrina, but he was rooted to the spot, mouth sewn shut by his fear. The figure came hurtling closer, and then all of a sudden the sound stopped, and the blue sphere reappeared, casting light on their adversary.

“What are _you_ doing here?”

Nick Scratch echoed Harvey’s thoughts so perfectly that for a second Harvey believed he was the one who had spoken.

“Doesn’t matter,” Sabrina said before Harvey could answer. “We need to get him out of here.”

Nick barely even spared a glance for Harvey before turning his attention back to Sabrina. “If we’d found a way to get out, we’d have done that hours ago. That’s the point.”

“I _know_ it’s the point,” Sabrina said, sounding the way she did when she was just settling into a long argument, and for a moment Harvey missed her so much he could barely breathe.

“Then keep him out of the way.”

“He’ll get hurt!”

“ _He_ is right here.” Sabrina and Nick looked up as if they’d only just remembered Harvey was present. “Could someone please explain to me where we are?”

“We’re in a test,” Nick said. He brushed a lock of his hair back, to no avail as it flopped back over his forehead almost immediately. Like Sabrina, he looked as if he’d been dragged through hell and back. His dark shirt was creased and showed strips of skin where it had been torn, and he had an ugly gash down his cheek. “Part of the Academy exams. We get paired up and have to go through a series of trials.”

“What’s the survival rate for these exams?” Harvey had been complaining about studying for a chemistry test just yesterday. He felt a little better about that now. Chemistry didn’t usually involve a night locked in a murder house—at least not literally.

“The Academy wouldn’t let people die, Harvey,” Sabrina said.

Nick hummed, though it wasn’t so much a hum of agreement as wonder. He smiled sharply. “Not recently, anyway.” He hissed as Sabrina kicked his ankle.

“You said something about an owl.” Sabrina turned to Harvey.

“It told me you were in trouble. That’s why I came—”

A loud crash startled all of them, the sound of something toppling over onto the floor right above their heads.

“What was that?” Harvey asked, and was immediately shushed by both Sabrina and Nick. They stood in silence as the house creaked and groaned around them.

“We should go check it out,” Nick said eventually, with a casualness that seemed foreign to Harvey at the moment. Sabrina nodded. “I suggest the mortal sticks close by in the meantime.”

The mortal has a name, Harvey wanted to say, but he didn't want to argue with Nick when he'd been civil enough to offer to protect Harvey. More than that, though, he knew any combativeness would translate as jealousy to the others. He hadn't forgotten the way Nick had talked about Sabrina, with a reverence that Harvey was sure not many were shown. Who knew what had happened between them these past few months while they were studying… well, whatever you studied at a magic school.

Sabrina pulled Harvey closer, her hands curled around his upper arms while she chanted in what he presumed to be Latin. Quiet and melodic. She'd done this before too. He remembered the warmth that spread through him, like the slow slide of a hot tea on a cold winter night, from his toes to the crown of his head.

“It's a protection spell,” Nick said. “They're not foolproof but they usually do the trick.”

Sabrina had only just finished her spell when a second crash sounded, followed by a flickering of the light above their heads. It hummed ominously, then died. They were cast in a sweeping dark so black Harvey might as well have closed his eyes for all he could see. Sabrina's warm hands on his arms were gone. Something brushed past Harvey’s cheek in the darkness.

“Don't move,” Sabrina’s voice whispered in his ear, as a small purple flame flared to life in her palm. It was just enough to light their little corner of the hallway, and just enough to see Nick was missing.

Sabrina cursed quietly. “They keep doing that. Like they don't want us to team up.” She twisted her hands so the flame danced out in front of them, drifting forward until it stopped to hover a few feet away. “We should go up. Whatever's up there, we'll need to beat it before they'll let us leave.”

There was little for Harvey to contribute except to follow Sabrina through one of the doors and up a narrow set of stairs. They crept silently, like children sneaking past their parents. Sabrina didn't speak. Neither did Harvey.

The second floor was just as dim and uninviting as the first. Harvey nearly had a heart attack when he saw a figure move in the corner of his vision, but it turned out to be a tree swaying in the wind behind a dusty window.

“Can’t we get out that way?” Harvey asked.

“There’s some kind of spell on the windows,” Sabrina explained. “We’ve tried to undo it, but it seems to trigger something else each time. Better not to take the risk.”

How long had they been at this? The skin underneath Sabrina’s eyes was smudged with purple, her shoulders slumped forward.

“Come on.” She tugged at the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him towards a door, and put her palm against the wood. “Remember last winter when we went camping, and there was that wild dog that tried to attack us, and you talked it down?” Her skin brushed his, unconsciously. He nodded. “I kept telling you to run, but you insisted on talking and talking, until it stopped barking and let you take it to the shelter.”

“They put it down,” Harvey said. He’d gone back to the shelter the next week, only to be told that there was nothing they could have done for the dog.

Sabrina frowned at him. “You never told me.” Her fingers grazed his skin again, deliberately this time, and she took his hand in hers. Palms brushing, she said, “That was brave of you, but I need you to listen to me this time. What’s in this house, it’s not dogs, so if I tell you to run, you run, okay? Find Nick, find an exit, and go.”

“You said it was just a test.”

He’d never seen Sabrina look so serious before this year. When he’d been crushing on her, before they’d gotten together, it had been her smile he’d noticed first. Now it seemed every time she smiled her expression was tinged with worry. “Tell me you understand,” she said.

“I understand.”

She squeezed his hand. “Stay behind me.” Then she let go of his grip, and opened the door.

At first Harvey thought the room was enchanted. It seemed larger than any room in this house could be based on the outside walls, but then he looked closer, and he realized it only appeared as wide as it did because every single surface was covered in mirrors. Walls, floor and ceiling—none of the original paneling or wallpaper was visible, only an innumerable amount of mirrors in all sizes, some of them plain and some with beautifully decorated gilded frames.

It was a mesmerizing sight. Harvey stepped into the room and watched a million other Harveys appear, all observing each other. He could hear the soft tread of Sabrina’s hesitant footfall behind him as she too appeared in the mirrors. Her reflection spun around, the smudged red lipstick and green sweater singular startling spots of color in the otherwise achromatic gloom.

I miss you, he wanted to say. I don’t care about the magic, the rules, any of it. I just want you.

But he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Sabrina’s purple flame reappeared, spinning slow circles around the room, creating a myriad of similar drifting flames. Harvey had been scared just a minute ago, scared of magic and its potential. He was no longer afraid now. This was what magic was supposed to be.

Of course it couldn’t last. There was a scraping noise behind them as the door swung closed, and something skimmed Harvey’s shoulder. He turned. Nothing but him and Sabrina, multiplied into eternity. A force tugged at his clothes and brushed his hair. The touch returned, then again, again. He called Sabrina’s name and felt a shove against his back, propelling him forward.

“Harvey?” Sabrina rushed to his side.

“Something’s touching me,” he said, just before Sabrina was whisked away and hurled into a mirrored wall.

He didn’t have time to respond. What felt like a clawed hand dug into his arm and hauled him against a cold, hard body. A different set of nails brushed down his throat. He struggled against the grasp, but it was like fighting a marble statue. Something hot trickled down his neck into his sweater.

Blood. It had drawn blood.

“Harvey, watch out.” Sabrina yelling, charging at him. He ducked just in time and they crashed together, dislodging the invisible hold and spilling onto the floor.

He lifted his head. He’d been mistaken—the creature wasn’t invisible at all, though it might have been better if it were. It was a woman, or it had been at some point. Now it was barely more than a skeleton covered in paper-white, translucent skin, most of which was covered in a Victorian nightgown. The garment hung loosely around the gaunt frame, more tatters than actual dress. Yet more frightening was its face—limp curtains of white stringy hair that revealed two black eyes, a shriveled hook of a nose, and a gaping dark pit where its mouth should have been. The two rows of sharp teeth reminded Harvey of a circular saw.

The face twisted, and he realized with muted horror that the thing was attempting to smile.

Behind the creature Sabrina was raising herself. He could see his own pale reflection, and then he realized what he should have noticed earlier. The mirrors only showed two figures; Harvey and Sabrina.

Sabrina raised her arms. The being was still focused on Harvey, approaching with a slow limp. The dark underground of Greendale had claimed Tommy, and now it had found him.

But it hadn’t come for Harvey. As soon as Sabrina's Latin chants filled the room, white smoke curled from the creature's skin, as if her words were turning it to ashes before their eyes. Harvey had been forgotten.

While enough to slow it down, it wasn’t enough to stop it entirely. It grabbed Sabrina by the hair, pulling her head back and covering her throat with a long-fingered hand. Her chants died in her throat as she was lifted off the floor, feet kicking into the air a few inches away from the ground.

Harvey had to do something. Not just stand there and watch as this monster squeezed the life out of Sabrina. But he had no weapons here, nothing to defend her, or himself. Except.

He inched closer to the wall. Sabrina's eyes tracked his movements, and he let his gaze convey his intentions. Hoped she could read him as well as she always had.

Most of the mirrors were attached to the wall, but some of them simply rested on the floor. He selected one that looked hefty enough, with a wide dark wooden frame. It was heavier than he had expected, but it would do. Then he approached the creature, and without giving any of them time to reconsider, smashed its head with the hard edge of the frame.

Sabrina fell to the floor with a dull thud. The creature shrieked and spun around, black eyes blazing, teeth gleaming white around the cavernous mouth. Harvey backed away, but it was on him before he could do more than a few steps. Its face was uncomfortably close. It smelled like sulfur. Like death. Dimly he heard Sabrina start chanting again, but his senses were oddly muted, grey fog creeping in at the edges of his vision and limiting his attention to just that wide, dark tunnel of a mouth.

A series of crashes sounded. Harvey managed to tear his eyes away to see Sabrina kicking the mirrors one by one, cracks appearing like spider webs across their reflections.

“The mirrors, Harvey!”

He ducked behind the creature and smashed a few of them himself.

Whatever they were doing, it was working. Sabrina chanted, and Harvey rammed his elbow and feet into as many mirrors as he could, until smoke filled his nose and made his eyes tear up.

One last shriek, as across the entire space mirrors cracked and exploded, leaving shards and ashes to scatter through the air like rain. Harvey reached for Sabrina just as she reached for him, and together they ducked from the hail.

They huddled together until it was clear the danger had passed. After all that, the silence felt almost unnatural. Sabrina was the first to rise as they inspected the battlefield. Not a single mirror was left whole and many of them had fallen from the walls. Harvey could see shards clinging to Sabrina’s clothes.

The creature was gone.

“What was that?” Harvey asked, grateful his voice didn't tremble as much as he had expected.

Sabrina picked up a piece of white lace from beneath the glass rubble. “I think that was a vampire. I've only read about them, so I’m not sure. Nick would know, but…” She smiled, wan but real. “The spell worked.”

“That thing could have killed us, ‘Brina. What kind of school is this?”

She shrugged. “They're unorthodox.”

No kidding, he thought. He picked a piece of mirror from her hair. “You’re good at this, aren’t you?” Sabrina was a witch. He’d known it, but a part of him hadn’t believed it until just now.

“I’m alright,” she said, but he could tell she was pleased.

They inspected each other for cuts and grazes and lifted most of the shards from their hair and clothes. Some of them had cut skin, but it wasn’t as bad as the ravage would indicate.

“It’s the protection spell,” Sabrina said.

“Upside to having a guardian angel,” Harvey replied before he’d realized that wasn’t something he could say anymore.

Sabrina only smiled, and pulled one more shard from between the folds of his sweater. “I guess you’re just lucky.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://queennsansa.tumblr.com/).


	2. Chapter 2

Harvey and Sabrina agreed to find Nick together. In the confines of his own mind, Harvey thought Nick should have shown up by now. Should have shown up a good while ago, somewhere between Harvey and Sabrina entering the mirror room and the two of them nearly being killed. Anytime really, Nick’s presence would have been welcome.

Harvey stayed silent.

Instead, Sabrina conjured her little blue sphere and told Harvey about summoning spells. As long as the distance was less than a mile, she explained, the light would find the person you were looking for, and lead them right back to you.

“So if I get lost and I see a blue light—”

Sabrina shook her head. “It only works with witches and warlocks. I’m sure there’s another spell, though. I’ll ask Nick when he returns.”

“Nick’s a certified genius then,” Harvey said. It had been at least partly a genuine question. Harvey remembered the ease with which he’d cast spells the night of the tornado, like he’d been doing it all his life. But he knew from the look in Sabrina’s eyes that it hadn’t sounded like a genuine question. The corners of her red mouth curled down.

Was this how it was going to be from now on? It had seemed almost easier when Sabrina had been away and it had been just Harvey and his thoughts.

A gust of wind brushed Harvey’s neck. He turned to find the window was closed, the draft gone again, as if someone had breathed air on his skin before running away. “Weird,” he said, “I thought I felt—”

Sabrina was gone.

He called her name, but no answer came. The draft was gone, Sabrina was gone. The hallway was empty. Harvey was alone.

“Sabrina? Nick?”

The house creaked ominously in reply.

Correction: Harvey was not alone. It was him and the house, and the nightmares that lurked behind the doors.

The thought occurred to him that Sabrina’s summoning spell sure would have come in handy right now—if only Harvey could do magic. But old-fashioned methods worked just as well, and growing up with Tommy had made Harvey a pro at hide-and-seek. It was just like that, really.

_Ready or not, here I come._

A white sliver of moon peaked out behind the swaying tree, barely enough light for Harvey to see anything more than gray shadows. He would start with the first floor. That was where he’d entered the house, so the space would at least be familiar, and he’d be able to work his way forward as he talked some courage into himself.

The stairs had seemed shorter when he’d climbed them with Sabrina. Now it felt to Harvey as if they extended for miles. Down and further down. Straight into the mines and into hell. He reached the bottom step and found himself in the same place he’d entered the house. The lamp overhead was even lit again. Welcoming him back.

No reason, no reason at all, to work himself into a fright. Down in the mines, you’re your own worst enemy, his dad always said.

Harvey took a breath and walked into the dark of the hallway.

The welcome didn’t stretch this far. Soon enough he was encased in darkness, so deep and solid he had to feel his way forward. His fingers brushed the wall, lingering at the spots where the wallpaper peeled off. The soft carpet below his feet muffled his steps. He called Sabrina’s name again to reassure himself he could.

A strip of light lit up, creeping beneath one of the closed doors. It was a warm flickering glow, like that of a candle, soft and inviting and calling Harvey forward. The doorknob turned easily, allowing him entry into what seemed to be an old-fashioned living room. It recalled hazy childhood memories of visits to his grandma, floral upholstery and pink-green pastels.

But the room didn’t just resemble his grandmother’s house. He picked up a silver picture frame that stood on the mantle showing a handsome couple, smiling with two young boys on their arms. The picture had stood on the mantle of Harvey’s own house after his grandmother had died, at least until his father had taken it down, most likely to hide it somewhere at the bottom of a dusty box in their attic.

Crowded as the space was, Harvey was still alone, and he’d come here to find Sabrina.

He extracted the picture from the frame and shoved it into the pocket of his jeans before backing out of the room.

With the door left open and the glow of the room spilling out into the hallway, he made his way forward. Stopped in his tracks. He thought he had imagined the noise, but then it returned. Soft, whispering voices. Sighs like wind rustling leaves. A thin, chiming laugh. If he squinted his eyes, he could see a hint of green moving a few feet away in the dark.

He stepped forward.

It seemed he had found Sabrina. Her back was turned to Harvey so that all he could see of her was her luminous hair. The laughter was hers. Low and intimate, just the way he remembered it from afternoons at the diner. He’d loved running his hands down the soft wool of her sweater, like Nick’s hands were doing now.

Harvey’s heart beat in his throat.

They weren’t kissing, not really. Wrapped up into each other, their figures curved over their joined hands, white-and-black hair brushing. Lazy sparks rose from their grasp. They hadn’t noticed Harvey. He’d been the intruder here, a liability more than anything else. No wonder Nick had been annoyed when he’d shown up.

“What are you doing here?”

Sabrina raised her head, eyes fixed onto Harvey. She didn’t sound the way she had earlier when she’d asked the same question. Her worry had turned to exasperation, her gaze demanding apologies he couldn’t offer.

Nick’s jeering stare joined Sabrina’s. “Run along, mortal. Your time’s up.”

A danger lurked beneath their twin smiles, like snakes lying in wait in the grass.

Harvey should have stayed home. Should have known when the owl spoke that it hadn’t been Sabrina. Sabrina didn’t need help, and Harvey wasn’t the one she would call if she did. He stepped back and stumbled over the carpet, catching himself against the wall.

A hand clasped his shoulder. Harvey recoiled.

“Don’t move,” Nick said at Harvey’s side.

In front of them, Sabrina’s lips curled back into a mean snarl as she stalked closer, and Harvey should have known it wasn’t really Sabrina by the look on her face. Devoid of any compassion or softness. The thing that wasn’t Sabrina waved her hand, and the Nick who’d stood behind her, who’d been stroking her arms and cheek, went up in smoke, filling the hallways with a thin mist that choked the air out of Harvey’s lungs. A gust of wind blew her hair back as two litanies of foreign phrases drifted along the hallway.

Amid the enthralling inflections of the chants, Sabrina’s appearance began to shift. Her hair grew longer and darker, her frame taller. A velvety green dress replaced the casual dark jeans and sweater. Soon, where Sabrina had been stood a beautiful middle-aged woman.

It didn’t take a genius to recognize her. Flawlessly crisp makeup and an enviable grace, her expression charmingly haughty. It was clear her son had inherited her appearance.

Nick’s spell faltered.

“Nicholas.” Her voice was soothing yet sharp. Faintly disappointed. Harvey had the thought that she probably always sounded like this—not unkind, but distant. Her dark brows drew together as her gaze fell on Harvey. “A mortal?” she asked. “The half-witch wasn’t enough? By Satan, you’ll send us into an early grave someday.”

Harvey had only met Sabrina’s aunts a few times, but the woman’s clipped inflections reminded him of her aunt Zelda. Maybe it was a witch thing. Harvey didn’t remember much of his own mother, but he remembered her smile and the warmth of her embrace. Conversely, the woman’s eyes lit up with a bitter fire and the air around them grew cold, Harvey’s breath forming cloudy puffs. And yet he felt oddly calm. He couldn’t even remember why he’d been so panicked earlier.

“Come home, Nicholas. We’re right here.” Her outstretched arms beckoned.

Harvey had almost forgotten Nick was still here. It felt as if he was wading through a fog in his mind.

The reassuring voice became more forcible. “Please, darling. We allowed you to go to this school, but clearly this Father Blackwood is unsuited for his position. Allowing mortal blood like that Spellman girl to walk their halls.” Her black-lacquered nails reached for her chest. “Imagine what your father would say.”

Spellman… Sabrina. Harvey had been looking for Sabrina.

“It’s not real,” he said, stepping between Nick and the woman. “She’s not real.”

Nick’s hazy gaze focused onto Harvey. He blinked a few times in quick succession as if confused at his surroundings, then said, “I know that,” and, “get out of the way.”

Harvey stepped aside and watched as both started chanting, the demon or whatever it was apparently forgoing illusions and launching into a more straightforward assault, one that had the floor shaking. He was losing focus again, tuning in and out of awareness. It was easy to slip away, let the exhaustion and ache taper off into a comfortably blank haze. The tremors that wracked the foundations of the house felt like the soft rocking of a boat on balmy summer waves, lulling him deeper, and deeper, and deeper.

“Wake up.”

Harvey’s limbs were made of lead.

“Wake up, mortal.”

His head was covered in layers and layers of cotton.

“For Satan’s sake, Harvey.”

A pain spread across Harvey’s cheek. He managed to pry open his eyes and looked up into Nick’s face.

“Did you just hit me?”

The hallway was quiet and empty apart from them. At some point Harvey must have slipped to the ground because his shoulders and back were now resting against a wall, the carpet surprisingly soft below his hands. He leaned his head back. “Did we get it?”

“We?” Nick sprawled out next to him. Inelegantly, which oddly made Harvey like him just a bit more. “Your nightmare was generous,” he said, inexplicably, and laughed at Harvey’s blank stare. “My hair does not look like that.” He carded his fingers through the disheveled locks, which admittedly didn’t look as immaculate as the apparition’s had. It seemed unlike Nick to make a joke at his own expense, but then again Harvey didn’t know Nick at all.

Nick continued, “Please note how I’m generously avoiding mentioning what I walked in on.”

“You just did.” Harvey’s head was pounding. He wished Sabrina would come back and wrest Nick’s attention her way again, because Nick’s idea of a conversation felt like a game of dodgeball Harvey hadn’t signed up for.

“And you are a tough crowd.” Nick rolled his shoulders and winced. “Anyway, no thanking me until we’re out of here. I’m pretty sure we were supposed to banish that demon, and I only drove it away.”

“Not to be rude, but your magic academy sucks.”

Nick hummed in apparent agreement. “I’d looked forward to not seeing my mother until Winter Solstice.”

Harvey honestly could have lived without finding ways to relate to Nick Scratch, but clearly the universe had something different in mind. “It was like listening to my dad talk. I get enough of that at home.”

That seemed enough civil conversation for the both of them. They sat in the quiet dim of the hallway, listening to the creaks of old wood. It was almost a comfortable silence. Even the house seemed temporarily appeased, or was playing its part. Harvey was grateful either way.

That was how Sabrina found them a few minutes later. She was panting, her black bow missing from her hair, but her face was graced with a wide smile. “I just beat a poltergeist. Locked it into one of the cupboards.” She paused at Harvey and Nick’s feet. “What have you guys been up to?”

“I’m glad you had fun,” Nick said.

Sabrina smirked at him and settled down onto the floor, massaging her shoulders. “So are we done then?”

“I doubt it. That demon we just met, it disappeared.”

“Well, what kind of demon is it?” She seemed to ready to go into battle in the blink of an eye. “Let’s go deal with it so I can take a long hot bath and sleep for a whole week.”

Harvey nodded. “Yeah, I’m with Sabrina. That’s the last time I follow an owl into the woods.”

“Speaking of, what was with the owl anyway?” Sabrina had stretched out her legs so her black lacquered shoes rested against Harvey’s legs, and she seemed so unaware of it that it almost annoyed Harvey. Like the casual ease with which she cast her spells—a total lack of self-consciousness. Harvey didn’t want her to be miserable, but he’d spent the last few weeks at school aimlessly roaming the hallways during breaks, turning to his left during English only to remember Sabrina wasn’t there. He missed her, more than he’d wanted to admit to himself. He just didn’t quite know how to deal with the fact that he seemed to be alone in the feeling.

“What did it look like?” Nick asked, nudging Harvey out of his plaintive thoughts. “The owl.”

“I don’t know. It looked like an owl? Brown feathers, yellow eyes.”

Nick huffed out a dry laugh. “Morgain. Agatha’s familiar is an owl.”

“Who’s Agatha?” Harvey asked, at the same time as Sabrina burst out, “that bitch. Of course she would do this. I’m surprised she hasn’t literally turned green of envy yet.”

“Now there’s an idea,” Nick said. “She really has it in for you, you better watch your back.”

“She’s the one who needs to watch her back after this, not me.”

Harvey listened to their back and forth for a few seconds before interrupting them. “I got dragged into this whole thing because of some petty fight you’re having with a classmate?”

Sabrina seemed to balk at this, but Nick snorted and said, “Basically. Except witches can do magic, so it’s a little more dramatic and dangerous than your average catfight.”

“Excuse me?” Sabrina crossed her arms. She wasn’t offended, though. Harvey remembered what an insulted Sabrina sounded like, and it wasn’t this. This was…

Well, for a lack of a better word, flirting.

That was fine. Harvey was just fine with that.

The three of them came up with a plan, which meant Sabrina and Nick came up with a plan and Harvey nodded at the moments they expected him to. Adrenaline from the earlier confrontations had worn off, and he just felt tired. He had class tomorrow. All he wanted now was to go home and forget about tonight. Maybe he could ask Sabrina for one of her amnesia spells.

“Have you guys checked out the basement?” Harvey said as Nick and Sabrina bickered over where the demon could be hiding out. “That’s usually a safe bet in horror movies.”

“Not a horror movie, but that’s a pretty good idea,” Nick admitted. “Sabrina?”

Sabrina dusted off her pants. Hard, resolved eyes, hair tucked behind her ears. She looked ready for a fight. “Fine. Let’s go.”

The stairs down to the basement were dark and narrow and dim, and despite what Nick had said, like every horror movie cliche Harvey could think of. At several points he had to brush cobwebs off his face, though he couldn’t see any spiders. He was unsure whether that was a good thing or not. Meanwhile, the house remained ominously still, only their soft footfall and breaths breaking the quiet spell.

“Do you know which demon it was?” Sabrina whispered into the silence.

Nick’s voice floated from somewhere behind Harvey. “It could shapeshift, probably read minds. Sounds familiar, but I can’t place it.”

“That could be any demon,” Sabrina said. They’d reached the bottom of the stairs and together they peered into the darkness of the cluttered basement. Boxes were scattered everywhere, contents spilling out all over the cobbled floor. Old, moth-devoured clothes and silverware gathered dust between derelict cabinets. “I don’t see anything, do you?”

Harvey shook his head and glanced back to check Nick’s reaction. Nick wasn’t paying attention to them, though. He was bent over one of the boxes, reaching for a battered silver tin.

Sabrina called out to him and he looked up, the tin clutched in his palm. “It’s here,” he said. When Sabrina frowned, he continued, “Look at the boxes. Don’t you recognize anything?”

Harvey and Sabrina did. Now that Harvey looked closer, he knew what Nick was talking about. Like the picture he’d put into his pocket, some of the items were familiar. A white summer dress he could remember his mom wearing, which even had a stain where she’d spilled wine on it one evening. Tommy’s backpack. One of his father’s vinyls. Sabrina had picked up a locket, her eyes transfixed and damp.

“It’s here,” Nick repeated, throwing the box back on top of a pile. He raised his voice. “Come out, then.” The words left an eerie quiet in their wake as the three of them stood silently, waiting for whatever last obstacle it was that remained to appear.

For a few more seconds, nothing happened, and then from out of the shadows a woman emerged. Blond hair only slightly longer than Sabrina’s, a dress that hadn’t been in fashion for a decade or two. Even if she hadn’t smiled so sadly at Sabrina, Harvey thought he would have recognized that expression anywhere.

“Sweetie.”

Sabrina’s face remained blank. Even Nick had flinched earlier, when the demon had assumed the form of his mother, but Sabrina only blinked calmly as the demon whose face looked so much like her own spoke softly and melodically. “I’ve missed you so much, my dear. All this time I have watched you. You’ve made me and your father so proud.” Tears welled in her blue eyes, threatening to spill over onto her cheeks.

The now familiar feeling of drowsiness rolled over Harvey, but fainter than before. Nick’s hands drew patterns into the air. Harvey could feel his magic, different from Sabrina’s protection spell—deep and earthy where Sabrina’s had been light and vivacious. Now that he could identify the feeling, he didn’t know how he’d missed it all those years. Magic was in the foundations of Greendale, from its alien woods to the menace of its mines. It was only concealed because the Kinkles and other humans had taken what belonged to Sabrina and Nick for generations.

Here, in this basement of an enchanted house, up against a demon, their magic felt naturally, viscerally real.

“Ready?” Sabrina called out, and as the demon reached out to brush one finger along her cheek, she and Nick raised their voices in unison. Hissing, face contorting into an inhuman snarl, the demon drew back.

“You think you can win?” it said. It no longer resembled Sabrina or her mother. Obsidian pebbles had replaced the light blue of her eyes, its mouth a red slash against autumn-gray skin. “Do you know who I am?” Its voice rumbled as if coming from deep within the earth.

“It won’t matter who you are when we send you back to Hell,” Sabrina said. Five feet of immovable resolve. Nick smirked. They were so confident, and Harvey realized things were very, very wrong only a second before the lights flickered, and the dark shadow of wings spread out behind the demon, spanning the basement and wrapping everything into a pitch-dark nothing.

A shriek, not a human sound. Wind as cold as ice.

A force wrapping around Harvey’s throat.

Sabrina was screaming. Not Harvey’s name, but Nick’s. Of course.

Bright spots danced across Harvey’s vision. His father’s voice. _It should have been you. Should have been you who died, not Tommy._

Fire blazed to life a few feet away and Harvey looked into the black eyes of the demon wearing his father’s face.

“I know who you are,” Nick said. He was helping Sabrina up. “Caacrinolaas. I’ve read about you.”

The demon let go of Harvey’s throat, the empty eyes breaking their stare, but it didn’t get a chance to reply. The fire—Sabrina’s fire—leapt forward to form a circle around the demon. Hands clasped, she and Nick spoke in a cascade of foreign words, their chants stumbling over each other but somehow merging into something Harvey could almost understand. The flames flared into bursts of blue-red light, swallowing the figure at its center and then dying down to reveal all that was left of the demon Caacrinolaas: a smoldering pile of embers.

“That was easy.” Nick wiped the sweat off his forehead with the hem of his shirt. It was oddly silent now that the crackling fire and chants and screams had died down.

“Harvey.” Sabrina crouched down next to him and he realized he was still sprawled onto the floor. He must have fallen down at some point. “You’re bleeding.” She brushed her thumb past his jaw. It came back red.

“Is it over?”

“Yeah, it’s over,” Sabrina said. She seemed oddly subdued. “Let’s go home.”

Home. The word sounded like music to Harvey’s ears. He wanted to crawl into bed and sleep until morning. He wanted to go to class tomorrow and live in a world where demons were just a nightmare you read about in comic books.

“Did we miss something?” Nick was standing by the basement door, rattling the handle. He turned back to frown at Harvey and Sabrina.

Sabrina helped Harvey up and walked over. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the door’s closed.” He tried once again for good measure. “We passed the trials. Why aren’t they letting us leave?”

Sabrina shook her head. “No, that can’t be. We did everything right. What did the instruction say?”

“ _Two enter the house to battle the night. The victor is he who wins the fight_ ,” Nick recited. “We battled the night and we won the fight. What more could they want from us?”

“The victor,” Harvey spoke up.

“What?”

“It’s a singular, right? Two enter, but—”

“There’s only one victor,” Sabrina echoed. She paused. “They want us to fight each other.”

Nick laughed.

“We have to.” Harvey could feel the hum of Sabrina’s magic thrumming beneath her words.

“No we don’t. This is just another one of Father Blackwood’s ridiculous customs.” Nick brushed the lock with his fingers and whispered an incantation. A white spark appeared, but the door remained closed. “I can’t believe this. We did everything we were supposed to.”

“But, Nick, we didn’t.”

Nick was too busy trying to open the door against all odds to realize Sabrina had already made up her mind. With a flick of Sabrina’s hands, his arms twisted behind his back. He struggled against her bonds, but it was no use. “Sabrina, please. You realize how ridiculous this is.”

Was Harvey supposed to step in here? He still didn’t like Nick very much, though he was man enough to admit that it probably had more to do with the way Nick looked at Sabrina than his personality. And Harvey loved, would likely always love, Sabrina. But the apprehension in Nick’s eyes was real, as was the fiery determination in Sabrina’s.

“You know what your problem is, Nick?” Tiny as she was, with magic energy crackling all around her and lighting up her figure, Sabrina looked like the promise of a devastating storm. “It’s that you’re too nice.” She raised her hands, palms forward.

“Sabrina, stop.”

In the second of hesitation that followed his plea, Harvey stepped up to Sabrina.

“Stay out of this, Harvey.” If he could only get her to look at him… But he’d always loved how steadfast she could be. He just hadn’t realized the danger in that.

“Nick’s right. There must be another way out of this.”

Sabrina was truly getting annoyed now. “With all respect, Harvey, you don’t get it. So step back and let me finish this.”

“This isn’t you.”

“Yes it _is_.” She lifted her hands a little higher, and Nick’s feet scraped the floor as he was raised into the air. He squirmed like a snake caught in the grip of an eagle. “I’m not going to kill him,” she scoffed. Nick didn’t seem so sure. Behind his back, his hands were twisting and turning into patterns, trying to break the spell.

“Can’t we just talk and come up with a solution that doesn’t require fighting each other?”

Maybe it was because Sabrina was distracted, or maybe her magic simply wasn’t as strong as she thought it was, but all of a sudden Nick’s hands were free. He dropped to the ground, landing safely on his feet. “They want a victor?” He massaged his wrists and spread his arms wide. “Let’s go, then.”

“Guys, this is silly,” Harvey said, but he was drowned out by Sabrina and Nick, whose spells had devolved into shouting more than chanting. Neither of them managed to gain much ground at first. Sabrina’s hair whipped into her face with the force of their combined magic, sticking to her lipstick. Every once in a while she brushed it aside with a frustrated hand movement. Her brows were drawn tight in concentration and each satisfied smirk of Nick’s seemed to set her off even more. Where Sabrina was pure brash willpower, Nick’s magic was a dancing lightning strike.

Sabrina fought to win. Nick fought because he relished in it.

Under different circumstances, Harvey might have enjoyed this. The two of them were fascinating to watch, the interplay of light and dark against the sparkle of their magical force. But then one of Sabrina’s incantations called forth a rain of glass shards from one of the old dusty vases lying on the floor. Nick drew up a shield, but not fast enough. Some of the gleaming fragments shot past, and one swept his cheekbone, right above where he’d been injured before. Blood trickled over the earlier gash, dripping down his jaw onto his shirt.

Sabrina halted her movements. “Are you—” She hesitated.

“Don’t go sentimental on me now, Spellman,” Nick said. Sabrina’s eyes hardened.

It was only a moment, and then the spells were flying around the basement again.

Harvey cast a glance around the room for something, anything to make them stop. His eyes fell on the smoldering pile of embers that had been a demon. Somehow, the flame hadn’t died. It remained flickering, smoke curling into the air in elegant whirls. There was something about the smoke… It took Harvey a minute, and then he realized. The white fumes formed the shape of wings.

“Guys.” Nick and Sabrina were too busy to pay him any mind. “Sabrina, Nick.” No response.

What if— what if the demon wasn’t gone. What if, like the last time, they’d only managed to drive it away. Harvey didn’t know anything about demons aside from a couple of horror classics, and he doubted those were a good source. Exorcism aside, how did you get rid of a demon?

Harvey stuck his hand into his pocket and took out the picture. His parents, Tommy and himself smiling, blissfully unaware of what was waiting for them in the future. He didn’t give himself time to think before holding the picture over the embers. The edges curled as they caught fire, his father’s feet the first to succumb to the flame.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, when Harvey had to release the picture because the flames were licking at his fingers, he heard it. A high-pitched keening, loud enough that Sabrina and Nick ceased their fight.

“What are you doing?” Sabrina asked.

Harvey leapt to his feet. “Burn everything. All the stuff you recognize, burn it.”

They hesitated but then, almost to Harvey’s surprise, simultaneously set fire to one of the boxes filled with old, yellowing letters and newspapers. They smoldered and crumpled, blackening to a shriveling heap. Without any need for magic the flame jumped onto a nearby box, consuming the white summer dress that had belonged to Harvey’s mother. It swallowed everything, tableware and furniture, picture frames and boxes filled with what seemed to be holiday decorations, spreading out until the three of them were surrounded by a sea of bright, scorching fire. They huddled together, arms brushing. Harvey watched the warm lights caress Sabrina’s flushed cheeks, draw shadows beneath Nick’s eyes, while all around them the demon’s memories turned to white ashes.

When it was over, after they’d doused the fire, they made their way back upstairs. All the doors they encountered were wide open now, including the front door. They spilled out into the clearing, where dawn was flirting with the last remnants of night.

“Congratulations.” A tall, sharply-dressed man awaited them. His black leather gloves caused a dull series of thuds as he clapped. “The two of you have passed your December exams. You may return to the Academy in January, when your grades will be shared with you.” If he was in any way aware that Harvey was present, he didn’t show it.

“Great. Can we go home now?” Sabrina said, already on her way past him.

The man nodded in assent. “You are turning out to be every bit your father’s daughter, Sabrina.” He clasped her shoulder. “And the Academy is lucky to have brilliant minds such as yours and Nicholas’ walking our halls. Go home, rest. You deserve it.”

Sabrina and Nick murmured their thanks before the three of them headed into the forest, trudging home. When Harvey looked back one last time, both the man and the house had disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you guys excited for the Christmas special next week? 'Cause I am. Last chapter will be up on Sunday!


	3. Chapter 3

“So we didn’t have to fight each other at all?” Sabrina doused a towel in a bowl of hot water and wiped blood and grime off her arms. Violent red scratches marred her pale skin, as if she’d gotten into a vicious fight with a rose bush.

Nick was dejectedly picking at his ruined shirt. “They could have just given us clear instructions. Then I wouldn’t have had to risk my life against Edward Spellman’s daughter.”

“I wasn’t planning on killing you. Not intentionally, anyway.”

Harvey leaned back into his chair and took stock of all the places his body ached. They’d ended up at Sabrina’s house after the walk through the woods because Harvey didn’t want to face his father looking like he did, and Nick… well, Nick had just tagged along. Only Ambrose had been up to welcome them, perched on the stairs like a bird on a wire, and he’d retreated to his room after a look from Sabrina. Which left the three of them in the kitchen of the Spellman residence, attending to the wounds they’d sustained.

When he was eight, Harvey had fallen trying to climb a tree. He remembered how frantic his mother had been then even if he hadn’t understood the reason for her panic. Once he’d gotten a look at himself in the hallway mirror earlier, he realized what he must have looked like to her then. The mirror fragments had left cuts all over his skin and dark smudges stained beneath his eyes as a result of exhaustion. He resembled a specter more than a human.

“I should have taken Healing instead of History of European Paganism,” Sabrina lamented as she carefully dabbed at a deep scrape along her collarbone. “I’m sure I failed that one anyway.”

“Don’t your aunts have potions lying around?” Nick asked. He seized the towel from her hands and took over, cleaning the area around her wound with slow swabs. All casual. Harvey averted his eyes to examine the scratches embedded in the kitchen table’s worn wood.

“Try the bathroom. If Aunt Hilda has any they’ll be there.”

Sabrina didn’t have to explain to Nick where he could find the bathroom. He must have been at the house before, then. Some other time when they’d had to patch each other up.

Someone had scratched a set of initials into the table, near the edge. Harvey wondered who G.S. was.

“Are you okay?” Sabrina was staring at him.

He should let it go. Say yes, say he was tired and should be going home. “You and Nick,” he said instead. “Is there something going on between you two?”

Sabrina was silent for a while. Her hands were fluttering about, playing with the frayed ends of a gash in her sweater. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She seemed sad, or just evasive. “I don’t know. Does it bother you?”

After everything that had happened tonight, Harvey was too tired to pretend. Too tired to let one more lie creep between them. “A little. But I’ll be alright. As long as you’re happy.”

“Thanks, Harvey,” she said. Her hand brushed his on the table.

“What for?”

Sabrina’s skin was soft and warm. “Being you.”

Would he ever stop missing her? That sad little half-smile, the flush on her cheeks, even the smudge of her ruined make-up. For a moment, he allowed himself the thought that the look in her eyes meant she missed him too.

“Found some.” Nick was leaning against the doorway, had been for a while if Harvey had to hazard a guess based on his position. His face was blank, or Nick’s version of blank, which seemed to be a faint smirk. “But I could pretend I didn’t find any if you guys need some more time to catch up.”

“We’re fine.” It was that tone of voice of Sabrina’s that brooked no argument. She held out her hand for the potion bottles.

Nick handed them over and leaned against the table. He caught Harvey’s gaze and held it. Like he was thinking about saying something, which meant it was only a matter of time until—

“On the subject of relationships.”

Yeah, there it was.

Sabrina looked up from where she was smelling a dark green bottle of viscous liquid. “Don’t.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say,” Nick retorted. He returned his attention to Harvey, leaning forward so that he hovered over him. “So, Sabrina and I have been talking—”

“Oh, no. Definitely don’t.”

As if she hadn’t spoken, Nick continued, “If Sabrina still likes you—which she clearly does—I just want to make it clear I’m fine with that.”

Harvey blinked. This conversation had quickly taken a left turn where he’d expected a right. Nick was into Sabrina. Harvey was ninety-nine percent sure Nick was into Sabrina, so why did he keep pushing her into Harvey’s arms? No scenario Harvey’s brain had come up with could make sense of his actions.

“Thanks? I think?”

Sabrina managed a tight smile. “Yes, thank you, Nick. I think we’re all glad to hear that. Now, does anyone want to volunteer to try what I think is a dried dragonfly wings potion?”

“What I meant, was—” Sabrina covered her face with her hands. “Witches and warlocks… we’re not like mortals. We don’t really abide by the same customs.”

“What customs?” Now Harvey felt more lost than he had been a second ago.

“Well, monogamy, for one.”

A silence fell over the kitchen. Sabrina peered behind her hands to shake her head at Harvey. “I’m so sorry. Cultural differences, and all.”

His brain still felt five steps behind, and he didn’t think it was just the exhaustion. Picking his words carefully, Harvey said, “Just to be clear. What exactly are you suggesting?”

“He’s suggesting I date you both.” Sabrina threw her hands into the air and nearly caused the bowl of water to topple over onto the floor. “Which I told him is ridiculous every time he’s brought it up, which is far too often.”

“Actually, my suggestion was—”

“For Satan’s sake, Nicholas!”

Nick shrugged and looked to Harvey for his reaction. Keeping his face blank was a challenge when his brain was running a mile a minute, jumping hurdles that spelled ‘cultural differences’ and ‘mortal customs’ and what was the opposite of monogamy again? What Nick was suggesting… it was an absolutely ridiculous proposition. _Sabrina_ clearly thought it was an absolutely ridiculous proposition, and she had told him the last time they saw each other that nothing could ever happen between them ever again. Harvey’s heart still gave a pang whenever he thought of that last lingering kiss.

Except.

Harvey’s heart still gave a pang whenever he thought of that last lingering kiss.

And wasn’t that the issue here? He’d managed to trick himself into believing he was getting over Sabrina, but one night in her presence had made it abundantly clear that any moving on had been a delusion.

And if Nick wanted her too…

“Logistically. How would this work?” Harvey kept his gaze onto Nick so that he didn’t have to look into Sabrina’s widened eyes. Nick just smirked at him, because of course.

“You’re serious,” Sabrina said.

“Just… be real here, ‘Brina. Because the way I see it, you’re getting the better end of the bargain here.”

“In my version, we’re all winning,” Nick interjected.

Sabrina grabbed the wet towel from the table and threw it at him. “We know. Now be quiet and give me a second.” She leaned back, gaze fixed on the table as Harvey’s had been earlier. A few times she shifted and opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Harvey kept his fingers from drumming an impatient rhythm on the table. Nick smirked, and Harvey wondered if he had a smirk for every occasion. A melancholic smirk, and a smirk of disappointment and astonishment. Probably, he decided.

Eventually, Sabrina straightened and leaned her elbows on the table. Harvey let his hand be covered by hers again as her thumb brushed the edge of a bandage on his finger.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she said. “Every day, Harvey. I just wanted to be sitting next to you in your car listening to Patti Smith, or across from you over milkshakes at Dr. Cerberus. I can’t just forget about all we had. But… I’ve also gotten closer to Nick the past few months. And I think, if you can move on, then you should. Because you’re a good guy, Harvey, and you deserve everything you want.”

“What if I want you?” Harvey turned his palm and held Sabrina’s hand in his. “What if what makes me happy is what makes you happy?”

“Then…” Together, they looked at Nick. He was staring at them, his expression not one of smug satisfaction as Harvey had expected, but something more difficult to read.

What now, Harvey thought. Surely all of this had been Nick’s idea in the first place. And the logistics of it still escaped him. “What about the rules?” he said. “I thought you guys weren’t supposed to hang out with non-magic people?”

Nick recovered quickly. “Those rules are made up. Father Blackwood doesn’t speak for the Dark Lord.”

“Also, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of rebels.” Sabrina grinned. “Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted. So maybe we can shelve the discussion for some other time?”

Harvey agreed, though he couldn’t be the only one to suspect this was all a little less straightforward than Nick was presenting it as. Maybe Nick wasn’t the jealous type. Then again, with a face like that, why would he be.

Before leaving, Harvey let Sabrina feed him one of the healing potions, which filled him with a tingling feeling there where his skin had been bruised and cut. Not unpleasant, but foreign. It made him drowsy, like regular painkillers did, but his skin already looked smoother. He agreed to take along some more of the green bottle after an imperious look of Sabrina’s.

In the hallway, the three of them clustered near the front door, she suddenly seemed awkward, unsure of how to say goodbye at the end of the night they’d had. She shifted from one foot to the other, then stepped up to Harvey and embraced him. It was the first time in months he’d held her in his arms. She still smelled like pine wood. Still felt like home. “Thank you,” he heard her whisper before she leaned up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

He never could have given this up.

The taste of chapstick lingered even after she pulled away. She smiled, softly and secretively, taking a few steps back to hug Nick as she had Harvey. After a moment’s hesitation, she kissed him as well. A brief press of lips, no more than a second, not like the demon illusion from inside the house. Harvey tried to analyze his feelings, but he was too tired for it. Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow, if this whole day didn’t turn out to be a dream.

“Call me,” Sabrina said to Harvey as he stepped out into the watery early-morning sun.

He nodded. Turned down Nick’s offer to walk him home and pulled up the collar of his jacket against the drizzling rain. All the way home, he felt the phantom touch of Sabrina’s soft lips on his.

Despite being unsure about just what he’d gotten himself into, despite the demons he’d faced and the fatigue that weighed down his limbs, he smiled. He had Sabrina back.

Everything else was a side note.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on a sequel set a few months after this fic ends because I'm not done with these characters yet, so keep an eye on this space. In the meantime, thank you all for reading and for the lovely comments, I appreciate them all!


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